I decided to put the A/N in front of the actual story. This is the final chapter, so I want to take a moment to thank everyone who has read this, who has subscribed to this and who has left those amazing comments ^^ Even though I had already finished this story, I still think about my friend who this story is about regurarly. And reading those new comments really made me cope with it even better. I hope you all somewhat liked this story, despite the character death, and that you all learned from it like I learned from going through something like this. Love life, it's a precious thing. Now, enjoy this final chapter (somehow) and I hope to see you all at my other stories someday too :) Thanks again! ^^ Love you all!

Chapter 21 - Final  Kyuhyun continued staring at the ceiling as he heard Hyukjae’s sobbing trail off. Donghae probably took him to the living room, Kyuhyun guessed.   It took 15 minutes before footsteps were heard on the stairs. The door of Donghae’s bedroom, where Kyuhyun had been sleeping that night, opened silently. From the corner of his eyes, Kyuhyun could see Donghae tiptoeing inside, as if he tried to give Kyuhyun one more minute of sleeping before waking him up.   When Donghae sat down on the bed, he noticed that Kyuhyun was awake. Donghae initially just stared at Kyuhyun, as he probably wasn’t sure on how to say what he had to say, and Kyuhyun just continued staring at the ceiling, as he didn’t feel like doing anything else at the very moment.   “You should come downstairs,” Donghae eventually proclaimed.   Kyuhyun just merely nodded, made his way out of the bed and started to put on some clothes. When Donghae reached in to give a helping hand, as Kyuhyun seemed to have a small fight with the zipper of his pants, Kyuhyun just slapped his hand away and told him to just ‘go downstairs already’.   After dressing up, Kyuhyun walked down the stairs slowly and took a stop in front of the door that connected the hallway --with the stairs in it-- to the living room. The living room where Donghae, and most likely Hyukjae, were waiting for him.   After taking one last deep breath, Kyuhyun opened the door.   He was surprised to find only Donghae. Donghae was sitting on the couch and gestured Kyuhyun to sit down next to him. Kyuhyun hesitatingly walked forward and took a seat.   Somehow, the fact that Hyukjae wasn’t in the room gave Kyuhyun hope. This could mean that the worst case scenario possible hadn’t occurred yet. Hyukjae could be with Jongwoon at this very moment, waiting for an ambulance to arrive, because maybe the latter had a minor setback. It would explain Hyukjae’s crying, him ringing the doorbell at 6 in the morning, and Donghae waking Kyuhyun up.   But Donghae’s eyes told differently. Kyuhyun knew what Donghae’s eyes were trying to tell him, and slowly the last bit of hope, that had remained in his system until this faithful Monday morning in April, started to fade away.   “Jongwoon…- ” Donghae started, but Kyuhyun silenced him by placing his index finger on Donghae’s lips.   “Don’t…” he muttered, and Donghae looked at him with an unreadable expression. Well, it was readable, but there were so many things going on on Donghae’s face at that moment, that it was unable to mention what the boy was actually feeling and thinking. “Please don’t make it real yet..”   Donghae nodded understandingly and left with the explanation that he had a few calls to make. To who or what he didn’t mention, and Kyuhyun was thankful for that.   It might sound weird, but as long as Donghae didn’t actually explain what had happened, Kyuhyun could keep thinking that he was dreaming. He could keep thinking that tomorrow morning, he would wake up, and realize that all of this was just a weird dream; just a figment of his imagination.   And it was that feeling that he wanted to hold on to as long as possible.     ✭✭✭✭✭     Donghae returned after 5 minutes. Only this time, Hyukjae followed him from out of the kitchen.   Kyuhyun stood up from his place, and for a short moment, Hyukjae and Kyuhyun just stared at each other.   Hyukjae looked horrible. His hair was messy, he was wearing Donghae’s pants, his eyes were bloodshot and watery, and he was more pale than Kyuhyun had ever seen him before. For that short moment it was completely silent. Then all of the sudden, Hyukjae started crying and ran out.   Donghae stared after him sadly, before taking Kyuhyun’s hand and leading him outside as well.   It seemed that they were going to Hyukjae and Jongwoon’s house. And as soon as Kyuhyun realized this, he stopped his walking and pulled Donghae, who was still holding his hand, back harshly.   “I’m going back to sleep,” Kyuhyun said firmly, releasing himself from Donghae’s hold and retreating back into the house. And who was Donghae to stop him.   Kyuhyun didn’t really go back to sleep though. He did went straight to his room, but instead of sleeping he opened the blindfolds and stared to Jongwoon’s bedroom window, which was located right across from his. The blindfolds of Jongwoon’s room were still closed, and somehow Kyuhyun was relieved that it was. Because deep inside, he didn’t want to see what he already knew just yet.   He watched as an ambulance arrived and stopped in front of the neighbor’s house. Paramedics stepping out and walked into the house, only to return outside again after 10 minutes.   It was about 5 minutes later that a hearse arrived. After seeing that, Kyuhyun closed his curtains immediately and lay down back on the bed.   So it really did happen.   That was the only thing Kyuhyun could think off. And right after that, his mind went completely blank. His feeling went completely numb. It was a rather unexplainable feeling.   It was as if his eyes could watch, but somehow couldn’t see anything. As if his ears could hear, but not interpret. As if his nose could smell, but not identify any fragrances. Everything that made Kyuhyun Kyuhyun seemed to have vanished, and all what remained was this empty body, which seemed to have no other purpose left than just lying on the bed.     ✭✭✭✭✭     Donghae came to Kyuhyun’s room many hours later. Even though he knew Kyuhyun didn’t want to hear what had happened, Donghae knew that he had to tell him eventually. Kyuhyun had to hear from Donghae that it was all over now. Donghae had to confirm what Kyuhyun already knew.   Donghae told Kyuhyun that Jongwoon had passed away that night. That he most likely had fallen asleep last night, with Hyukjae next to him, and just never woke up again. The doctor, that had declared that Jongwoon had indeed passed away, had told Donghae and Hyukjae that Jongwoon didn’t suffer, that he probably had felt like he was falling asleep.   That made Kyuhyun grumble in frustration though. How could the doctor say that Jongwoon hadn’t suffered? He was sick for more than a year. Didn’t he suffer a lot?   The tears still didn’t come though. The empty feeling remained, the feeling that his body just had shut down.   For the upcoming days, it were Donghae and Hyukjae who arranged the funeral. Donghae, because he was probably the best person to do so, and Hyukjae, because Jongwoon had most likely told his best friend what he wanted, and how he wanted it. They had asked Kyuhyun to help them, because it might help him to deal with it, but Kyuhyun had declined. He really didn’t want to help.   Kyuhyun woke up in the morning, ate breakfast, watched some TV, ate lunch, did some games, ate dinner and went back to bed. The days felt long, the nights even longer. But somehow, at the end of each day, or at the start of each morning, Kyuhyun already forgot what he had done the day before. As if he lived life, but somehow wasn’t really living it himself. It was just his body functioning as it should, but his mind had somehow lost track of everything.     ✭✭✭✭✭     It was 4 days after Jongwoon had passed away.   The whole day seemed to take forever, but somehow felt as if it didn’t take long enough. Kyuhyun didn’t want the evening to start, because that evening would be the evening of saying their final goodbyes.   And for Kyuhyun it would also be the first real sign that everything was really over. Sure, Kyuhyun hadn’t seen Jongwoon for 4 days now, but Kyuhyun still kept a good grip on the thought that maybe Jongwoon was out of town. Or maybe he was busy with stuff of his own, that he had no time for Kyuhyun. Anything that would explain Jongwoon’s absence.   Kyuhyun, Hyukjae and Donghae were the first to arrive at the church at around 3 in the afternoon. There would be a memorial service at 4, before the actual funeral. The memorial service would be open to anyone who wanted to come, the funeral itself would be for those who were close to him only.   Thirty minutes after arrival, Kyuhyun stared outside through the church doors. He had never seen so many people before. There was a huge lineup in front of the door, and even though most of the church was already filled with people who had known Jongwoon, the line was still enormous. In fact, there were this many people, that a whole group didn’t even fit in the church anymore. There was an extra room made up for them, with a TV screen so they could watch the memorial service from the other room.   No one complained.   The memorial service itself was... upsetting. After a few words from Donghae, the coffin was carried in. The music playing while this happened was ‘Viva La Vida’ from ‘Coldplay’. A song picked by Jongwoon himself to play at his funeral.   During the intro music, Kyuhyun was holding on pretty well. But as soon as the words “I used to rule the world” came out, Kyuhyun suddenly felt this